Mapping Growth Patterns – and can Non-Natives Play Nice with Natives?

Overview

Exploring what happens when perennials with different growth habits and origins share space.

The common assumption is that non-native plants, or strong spreaders, will always crowd out the natives, or slower-growing species within a garden or landscape space, but is this true? This presentation looks at how mapping growth over time can help us answer this question.

Noel will outline a 7-year mapping project he had in England which challenged his assumptions about the growth of so-called aggressively spreading perennials. Inspired by this, Oakland, USA-based urban and landscape designer John Kamp did something similar in the city of Minneapolis that documented how the species composition of a garden space containing both native plants and nursery-bred cultivars evolved over time. The results might be surprising and might challenge you to rethink what you know about how native and non-native plants interact over time.

The presentation will also explore the projects’ implications for both landscape design and maintenance when it comes to mixing native- and non-native plants, or strongly-spreading and less vigorous species within the same space.

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